January 30, 2015

The Phillies have acquired several young players this offseason in their quest toward getting younger. As the dust settles, new prospect rankings are coming forth. Keith Law of ESPN posted his lists this week. Despite the acquisitions, the Phillies have just two out of the top 100 prospects.

With 30 major league organizations, for the Phillies to be average, they would need to have three prospects on the list, four if they were in the top one-third. Evaluating the full organizations, even outside the top 100, Law ranked the organizational quality of all major league teams. Law considers the Phillies to be the 25th best organization in baseball. Not good for a team in need of young talent.

The two prospects who made the cut: 2013 first round draft pick J.P. Crawford and 2014 first round draft pick Aaron Nola. Law thinks very highly of Crawford, ranking him seventh in all of baseball. Nola is a bit further down at number 57. Law thinks very highly of Crawford in particular, believing that Crawford will work out any deficiencies that he has at the moment.

Two Phillies players missing from the list: Maikel Franco and Jesse Biddle. Franco is still high on Law's Phillies top 10, but he was pushed out by others in the top 100 rankings. Biddle seems to be completely off of the prospect radar, as evidenced by Law's top 10 Phillies prospects.

The Phillies are short on position players, but are well-stocked with pitchers. Pitcher Ben Lively, acquired for Marlon Byrd from the Cincinnati Reds, is not on this list. However, with Eflin and Windle both top 10 players, the Phillies appear to have done quite well in their deal for Jimmy Rollins.

Check back later today to see how MLB.com ranks the new Phillies prospect list.